Guest Writer From the Fresher’s Fair to Sweden, we hear from Emma & Oliver, who are getting married next month.
We met during our second day at York, being international students we arrived on campus a bit earlier than other students and we lived in the same college campus, Alcuin.
During my first day at York I had become friends with a couple of students living in the same halls as Oliver so we made plans to meet up the following day and they brought him along.
In the beginning we were just friends, we saw each while hanging out with our common group of friends. At Fresher’s Fair we lost our other friends in the crowd so we ended up going around signing up to the different activities together – perhaps most importantly rowing, a sport Oliver discovered for the first time that day and something he is still actively doing and passionate about.
While technically not a date or even intended, Fresher’s Fair was definitely the beginning of us getting to know each other better. At the fair we both signed up for Scandinavian Society (rebranded to Nordic Society today) and later joined their IKEA trip, where we spent even more time together.
By the end of first term we were going out – our first official date was dinner and a movie at York Picture House in November. We still celebrate that first official date as our anniversary every year.
Eleven years later, and having lived in Sweden together for the past seven, we have had a few more trips to IKEA together in the past years – so not much has changed!
After graduating in 2014 I continued my studies in Uppsala, Sweden and did a two year Masters Programme in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Oliver continued for a further year doing a year in industry as part of his Master of Chemistry, followed with a graduate programme at AstraZeneca. The latter allowed him to relocate to Gothenburg in Sweden, where we were able to move in together. I have since gone on to work with Customer Success Management in the tech sector and Oliver has been doing research education/a PhD in Pharmacy at Uppsala University.
We own a three year old Australian terrier together and enjoy spending our free time doing things like hiking, playing board games, exploring new places, watching films or hanging out with our loved ones. Our dream is to one day have our own cabin by a lakeside.
We are getting married this June and will be celebrating with our closest fiends and family, many of whom we haven’t seen for a few years now as they are spread across the world. Planning it is really exciting and we are looking forward to celebrating our love with a big party soon!
